How to Use smoke and mirrors in a Sentence

smoke and mirrors

plural noun
  • There was no smoke and mirrors there.
    — Matthew Odam, Austin American Statesman, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Not too much glitz and glamor and smoke and mirrors.
    — Gil Kaufman, Billboard, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Cassie is also part of Nate’s smoke and mirrors.
    — José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 13 Apr. 2026
  • Much of what was being touted turned out to be smoke and mirrors.
    — Elizabeth Weise, azcentral, 15 June 2018
  • Both teams have been winning with smoke and mirrors thanks to injuries.
    — Scott Miller, New York Times, 3 June 2023
  • Chicago’s future should not be built on smoke and mirrors.
    — Chicago Tribune, 23 May 2026
  • No smoke and mirrors just a sweaty Shayna on the beach with her pasty skin and messy hair.
    — Blake Bakkila, Health.com, 22 Feb. 2018
  • Authentic leaders can thrive in a world where smoke and mirrors rule the day.
    — Rolling Stone Culture Council, Rolling Stone, 8 May 2025
  • During lock down, all the smoke and mirrors of the industry went away.
    — Spin Staff, SPIN, 19 Apr. 2022
  • One step closer to shipping the product, or more smoke and mirrors?
    — Frank Landymore, Futurism, 13 May 2026
  • But behind all the smoke and mirrors, this is how these arrangements work.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 10 June 2022
  • Snoop Dogg’s apparent farewell to weed was all smoke and mirrors.
    — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 20 Nov. 2023
  • But more often than not, those assumptions are just smoke and mirrors.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes, 6 Nov. 2024
  • Biden’s legacy on job creation is nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
    — James M. Hohman, National Review, 3 Jan. 2025
  • No costumes, no stage set, no smoke and mirrors, no audience of course.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 14 May 2024
  • That's what the smoke and mirrors of television does to people.
    — Michael Saponara, Billboard, 3 May 2018
  • Those questions are all smoke and mirrors to push the subject aside, put it on the back-burner.
    — Dan Greene, SI.com, 9 Feb. 2018
  • The month of October is going to feel a bit like smoke and mirrors.
    — Meghan Rose, Glamour, 1 Dec. 2022
  • That truth just has to come with more than smoke and mirrors and Lemon Pledge–scented beets.
    — Alicia Kennedy, Bon Appétit, 1 July 2022
  • Even the quality of the things that did get modernized seems like smoke and mirrors.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2022
  • Other, accents, however, are a bit more in the realm of smoke and mirrors.
    — Davey G. Johnson, Car and Driver, 27 Oct. 2017
  • Prepare for a dive into the world of aviation dark arts—of smoke and mirrors, acid, and lasers.
    — David Hambling, Popular Mechanics, 15 Nov. 2022
  • But there’s not enough going on behind the virtuosic smoke and mirrors.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Jan. 2024
  • This is the time where the places that were operating kind of with smoke and mirrors can’t stay alive anymore.
    — Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press, 14 Oct. 2020
  • There, is of course, some classic Washington smoke and mirrors here.
    — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 28 June 2021
  • These numbers are not smoke and mirrors or budgeting gimmicks.
    — Patrick A. McLaughlin, Twin Cities, 6 Aug. 2025
  • These numbers are not smoke and mirrors or budgeting gimmicks.
    — Patrick A. McLaughlin, Boston Herald, 11 Aug. 2025
  • On the opposite end, skeptics wave AI off as smoke and mirrors.
    — Tony Bradley, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
  • How much of the Kremlin’s confidence is smoke and mirrors is the big question.
    — Nathan Hodge, CNN Money, 31 Dec. 2025
  • Other great reads Snoop Dogg’s apparent farewell to weed was all smoke and mirrors.
    — Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'smoke and mirrors.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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